Anger Management

Anger management is not just a movie starring Jack Nicholson or a buzz-word in coporate America or a new psycho/social treatment plan; anger management is a biblical principle that Christians must incorporate into their lives if they are to honor God, bless others and protect themselves.

What I have just said above is, to a degree, self-evident.  You are painfully aware of things you have said and done in anger, which you know dishonor God, perhaps even using His name in vain as you lashed out.  I can still feel some of the lumps I took when I let my anger get loose as a child with my older brothers.  And there was that big kid in the 5th grade I got crossways with - I think he just got tired of pounding on me.  Certainly you can remember times when you've said things to others that cut them to the heart.  Later you regretted it but the damage was done.

As self-evident as it is, there is more beneath the surface of anger management that you may not be aware is happening - a silent, sinful sedition of the soul.  In Ephesians 4:26-27, the apostle Paul warns, "In you anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold."  Your anger is not yours alone, it is a matrix in which the devil develops a foothold on your soul.

You've noticed that when you act out in anger, you agologize later saying, "I just lost control."  True, but who then was in control?  Could it be Satan? (Sorry for the SNL Church Lady reference, I just couldn't help myself - I lost control :-))  That is precisely Paul's warning and  the reason to gain control of our anger and extinguish it ASAP or as the text says, "Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry."

Anger in itself is not sin, cultivated anger leads to sin.  Even the best among us can have a flash of anger caused by outside forces acting unjustly or harshly.  But that doesn't mean they will sin by acting out of their anger.  They can  keep their anger under control, get past the intial explosion of feelings and react in love instead of bitterness and hate.

Satan wants you to either react poorly in the heat of the moment or stew in your own juices until you explode even more violently later.  Or, even better, push the anger down and let it ferment into a cancerous hatred that eats your very soul.  The only hope is to turn your anger over to the Lord and let him heal you.  Admit your anger, talk about your hurt, seek reconcilation, forgive the other. But do not let time slip away while your anger rots your spirit.  Jus' Sayn.